Pier & Beam vs Slab Foundations with Mark LaLiberte
This is one of Matt’s older YouTube videos exploring the key differences between Slab-on-grade foundations and pier and beam foundations. Matt is joined by special guest Mark LaLiberte on one of Matt’s job sites.
Mark and Matt discuss the differences between a piered foundation and a slab foundation for their hot and humid Austin Texas climate. Mark is one of Matt’s mentors and he’s learned so much about Building Science from him.
Please bare in mind that this video is 11 years old and even though the information presented is relevant the video and audio are not at today’s higher video standards.
Video Transcript:
Hey everybody, this is Matt Risinger, of Risinger Homes. Welcome to my video blog on green building and building science. Special day for us here on the job site. I’ve got my mentor, my hero, my friend, Mark Laliberté, with me. I’ve learned so much from you over the years, Mark, and I really appreciate all the training from all the guys like me that are trying to do the right thing but didn’t know. And you open my eyes to the world of building science, so I appreciate everything I learn from you over the years.
Like obviously, translating it beautifully here, we’re seeing a lot of details from the inside – the vapor barriers, the air barriers, the control on the outside. Just an excellent job of looking at the details, planning, sitting in a nice rain screen. Beautiful stuff. Yeah, a lot of things I really noticed was how you’re doing really a pure foundation and what the idea is. It allows us to kind of isolate the house up off of the ground and use steel studs to really eliminate the opportunity for wood rot when they occur , down on the other side, you’ve got insulation up under the bottom, and that allows that space to really sit the house kind of closed in an insulation bag, which is ideal. Yep, so nonsense having the house connected to a dirty wet soil, a nice dry enclosure, and the space underneath there is exactly as it should be – buildings up off of the water, the soil, and the dirt, allowing the house to perform much better.
Yeah, and you know we do a lot of slabs here in Texas, Mark, as you know, and our companies build a lot of slabs. We like slab foundations, but one thing that one detail that’s typically missed and is very tricky to do, frankly, is insulating that slab edge. If you can picture with these steel studs or if this was a slab foundation, all that exposed slab is taking the sun’s rays, is directly exposed to that hundred and ten degree heat in July. And a concrete slab has a lot of thermal mass, so it’s soaking up that sun’s energy, and it’s going to give that off really even all that night long into the house.
So by doing a parent beam instead, we’re able to totally insulate that floor cavity with the open cell foam, isolate the house, decouple it from the ground, and it really makes for a very, very high performance house, it’s better. It also, like, to sit thermally, it’s better having all that concrete warmed up and transfer the house this more than we need. Seems kind of silly to put in an extra air-conditioner to take care of the concrete. Yeah, so I think the choice is excellent. Thank you, Mark. I appreciate your time. Thanks, buddy, on the job site. The good work, you guys. I’ve read everybody. We’ll see you next time.
We’ll see you next time on the Build Show
Related foundation posts:
External YouTube Content – Pier and Beam vs Slab Foundations | Which one should you choose? By Belinda Carr
